Azir/Strategy
Champion Spotlight Recommended Items Tips ;Playing As * Be careful about putting down both of the soldiers stored by Unless you're going all-in, always have a soldier in your back pocket if you need to escape over a wall or if you misposition your other soldier and need damage now. * In the lane, try to position your soldiers between the enemy's minions and the enemy champion. This way you can use them both to last hit and to project threat onto your lane opponent. * Think of as a defensive ability first and foremost. Use it when the enemy engages on you or your allies. Remember that your team can walk through the soldiers summoned by and use this to your advantage when enemy melee champions engage on you. * ;Playing Against * Azir relies on his soldiers to deal damage and can only move them so often. Try to capitalize on windows of time when his soldiers are stationary. * Azir has immense damage over a prolonged amount of time but lacks the upfront burst of other mages. Try to burst him out before he can turn a confrontation around. * Try to think of as fire. Don't stand in the fire. Tricks ;Ability Usage * will move his soldiers relative to where the soldiers were placed. The soldier placed first will move to the location of cursor at the time conquering sands was cast. The second soldier will move to the right of cursor, and the last soldier placed will move to the right of where cursor was. Their movements do not depend on how close they are to the target. ;Mastery Usage * ;Item Usage * is an ideal item for Azir, and in many cases will most likely be your first completed item. While expensive overall, gives Ability Power, Attack Speed, and CDR all in one item, granting an early spike in both burst and sustained damage that few other items can replicate. It is recommended that be your absolute first buy thanks to the early AP and CDR. ** This is a somewhat controversial choice for , as the on-hit damage from is triggered by his soldiers. * Despite sustained damage playstyle, his kits reliance on low-cooldown spells for damage and utility can cause Azir to run low on mana early on. How to mitigate this issue is up to the player, but options include: ** into can give Azir both in-lane sustain due to its HP/Mana regen passive and steadily increase his HP (helpful for 's HP ratio), mana, and Ability Power as the game goes on, making it a valuable lategame item. ** grants CDR, a lot of AP, and decent mana regen on its own. The from its passive can also be extremely helpful. This is because apply spell effects while dealing damage in a line, meaning can be inflicted against multiple enemies quite effectively, making it quite helpful against enemies with heavy sustain. ** A would arguably be the most lategame-focused mana item to pick, offering solely mana and mana regen. However Azir's relatively low-cooldown kit means he can build up s quite quickly. Once it's been upgraded to it will give a respectable boost to AP, and after transforming into it will grant Azir a very helpful means of defense. ** It is recommended to build or any items that build out of it; Azir's soldiers apply , and thus do not benefit from in any way. * can be very helpful against a team full of tanks or bruisers; its HP% burn passive can be applied and quickly refreshed through Azir's Sand Soldiers, and ' slow will briefly double the % max health burnt. The AP and Magic Penetration benefit Azir's damage overall, while the HP will benefit the shield gained from . * In the case that max CDR has been reached without , Azir benefits from a wide variety of boots. grant Magic Penetration, and grant defense against AP/CC and AD/Auto-attacks respectively, while will increase Azir's DPS. If you can afford to do so, pick Boots based on the enemy team composition. * While it offers little offensively, can be a very powerful defensive item in a variety of situations. The Armor and Health improve general durability, while the HP specifically will grant a more powerful shield. Although in an ideal situation Azir shouldn't be in range to make use of , the active can give Azir a last-ditch escape against enemies that get too close. * thrives on dynamic positioning and quick repositioning. On top of its raw stats, passive can assist in making Azir even more slippery and more difficult to lock down by blocking potentially lethal CC. * While most of his skills don't have very high AP ratios, the Sand Soldiers from have a very respectable one. Being the focus of his damage by replacing his autoattacks, can give Azir absolutely devastating damage. * is a very useful item for Azir, granting a large amount of AP, respectable Armor, and an active that can negate potentially massive amounts of damage. If you have a secure lead and are doing well, you can potentially get away with this as your lone Armor-based item. * is incredibly effective on Azir. The slow is applied on all of his abilities and his soldier's attacks, both providing additional CC, and making it more difficult for opponents to escape his soldiers. The health increase is also a nice addition to his defenses and the shield scaling on . ;Countering * Sand Soldiers are untargetable and can only be moved via ; with proper positioning and timing, you can bypass the soldiers and strike directly. * Aside from , has relatively low cooldowns. As such it would be best to engage on based on his available mana rather than his spells, which are almost always going to be available before a fight. * 's secondary role is that of Marksman for a reason: his damage is most often dealt over a sustained period of time and based primarily on his autoattacks. Making him a high priority for burst and CC or somehow reducing his attack speed will significantly mitigate his threat level. * can be built as a bursty glass cannon, sustained DPS Ability Power Carry, or tanky AP bruiser. Determine the build path being taken based on 's items, then adjust your approach accordingly. * is his only escape, which even at max CDR has a cooldown of below 10 seconds. If you can bait into using it offensively or otherwise preemptively, then he can be quickly locked down and eliminated. * reaches his full potential in the late game, where his heavy sustained damage and utility can sway teamfights drastically. The tradeoff for Azir's strong late game power is his weak early game. By picking to counter him and/or co-operating with your Jungler, you can help shut him down early game. * provides great utility in teamfights and blocks most dashes. However, it does not block blinks, so champions like , and can bypass the wall and assassinate their targets. Champions like , and can also bypass the wall with their ultimates. Category:Champion strategies Category:Azir ru:Азир/Стратегия